Premier League preview: Southampton v Wigan

There was plenty to like about Southampton despite their 3-2 defeat to Manchester City, while the same could not be said about Wigan.

Southampton had only lost one of their last five league games away to City heading into the match, and although times have significantly changed, the newly promoted side came within a whisker of taking all three points on their return to the Premier League.

Steven Davis, formerly of Rangers, and Rickie Lambert cancelled out the opening goal from Carlos Tevez to hand Nigel Adkins’ side a surprise 2-1 lead against the defending champions with less than 20 minutes remaining.

But they were eventually pegged back through goals from Edin Dzeko and Samir Nasri.

Adkins walked away heartened by the display of his charges, even if he was a little disappointed not to have at least claimed a point.

“I’m obviously very proud of the players, but it’s about winning games of football – that’s our endeavour,” he said.

Next up for Southampton is a match against Roberto Martinez’s Wigan at St Mary’s.

Wigan were outplayed by Chelsea in their league opener and looked off the pace but showed signs of progression in the 2-0 defeat according to midfielder James McArthur.

“When you look at what happened against Chelsea here two seasons ago, it just shows you how far we’ve come since then,” he said.

“Going two behind so early might have made people think here we go again but, we showed great mental strength and put them under pressure for the majority of the game.”

And the former Hamilton Academical midfielder is well aware of the threat Southampton will pose.

“They’re going to be raring to go and we know what we need to do because we played all three promoted teams in a row last season and we know that they’re going to come out all guns blazing,” the 24-year-old said.

“We need to impose ourselves on every game because with our style of play it helps to stop other teams controlling the match.”